Friday, February 15, 2008

If Hillary Clinton runs the United States the way she has managed her recent election campaigns, the country may be headed for big trouble. I found this conclusion almost inescapable after reading an account of the Hillary Clinton campaign by Josh Green.1. Hillary Clinton burned through $30 million in her election bid for the US Senate "even though Hillary Clinton faced no serious opponent." Donors' money ought to have been saved-up towards the financing of her presidential bid. Instead it was wasted.

2. "Toward the end of the Senate campaign," writes Green, Hillary's campaign manager, Solis Doyle, spread the word "that Clinton’s Senate reelection fund-raising had gone so exceptionally well that $40 million to $50 million would be left after Election Day to transfer to the incipient presidential campaign. But this turned out to be a wild exaggeration—and Solis Doyle must have known it was. Disclosure filings revealed a paltry $10 million in cash on hand" First, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Solis Doyle wasted donors' money; second, Doyle appears to have misled people about the campaign's finances. Surely Doyle ought to have been fired then and there.

3. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton began her presidential campaign with a whopping $175 million banked. As Green wrote, this "should have been enough to fund a formidable campaign, even one that dragged on as long as this one has." But the Hillary Clinton campaign has now run out of money. What's more, Hillary Clinton apparently did not know she was just about to run out of money until it was just about to happen. According the the Baltimore Sun, Solis Doyle "did not tell Clinton that there was next to no cash on hand until after the New Hampshire primary." In emergency-mode last week, Hillary lent the campaign $5 million -- without telling her campaign manager, who found out about the loan third-hand.

Hillary's campaign manager Solice Doyle was finally fired this week. But what took Hillary Clinton so long to let her go? Green writes: "above all, Clinton prizes loyalty and discipline, and Solis Doyle demonstrated both traits, if little else. This suggests to me that for all the emphasis Clinton has placed on executive leadership in this campaign, her own approach is a lot closer to the current president’s than her supporters might like to admit."

Certainly, just about the last thing the United States needs is another personal-loyalties-before-country chief executive.